Information management systems, referred to herein as “workload analyzers,” are known for monitoring and managing status, performance and configuration of networked storage components, such as a plurality of disk storage systems. Early implementations of workload analyzers were primarily available to and used by field engineering personnel commissioned with the tasks of analyzing performance, characterizing workload and undertaking capacity planning for disk systems in the context of large data storage centers comprised of a large plurality of disk storage systems (each system itself comprised of a large plurality of disks). Such early workload analyzers typically provided facilities for viewing selected parameters associated with each disk or disk system and creating graphs to correlate the parameters or metrics. However, such early systems typically were not accessible to users, nor were they designed to be “user-friendly.” They generally did not provide access to nor manipulate historical data. Early systems typically made parameter access and system management possible only on a one-to-one basis, in that parameters could be viewed only for a single drive or system at a time.
One known, early workload analyzer system, known as SymTOP and used for limited workload analysis on SYMMETRIX disk arrays available from EMC Corporation, Hopkinton Mass., provided a field tool that systems engineers in the field used in day to day work to do performance analysis on the Symmetrix machines. SymTOP had the capability of collecting data on the service processor, which is an integral, control processor in Symmetrix. Systems engineers generally had to manually take the data with diskettes, bring it to their own machines (so as not to affect performance of the Symmetrix and its service processor, and then use the collected data as input into the SymTOP tool. The tool, which processed data gathered at the controller level, provided a graphics capability so that graphs of the static data could be automatically generated, for example to give a view of the well being of the machine at the time the data was collected.
For example, as illustrated in FIG. 1, graphs could be generated to view performance levels of key parameters, referred to as the “vital signs.” Checking the vital signs with the SymTOP tool provided the key graphs that the factory suggested should be looked at for assessing system performance. The SymTOP tool was not configured to enable the system engineer or user to manipulate the system in any way that would affect parameters. It was simply a post-processing tool for analysis. It provided an information gathering tool useful to system engineers to try to identify bottlenecks, to do some workload characterization, and possibly prepare data for capacity planning The three major capabilities of post-processing data analysis of these early workload analyzers were limited to: performance analysis, workload characterization and capacity planning
Later versions of workload analyzers include the aptly named “Workload Analyzer” product, also available from EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, Mass., for use with EMC SYMMETRIX disk arrays. The Workload Analyzer was/is configured to provide greater functionality, to more than just engineering personnel. Later workload analyzers are configured as customer products with more user-friendly capabilities. The primary difference between SymTOP and the later Workload Analyzer which provides greater functionality, is in the implementation architecture. While SymTOP got data from the service processor, Workload Analyzer gets data over a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) channel, connected to a host. That is, Workload Analyzer, which typically runs as a process on another machine (i.e. not the service processor or a host) receives data from the Symmetrix through the host over the SCSI I/O (input/output) channel. In this manner the service processor is not tied up with data gathering and transfer responsibilities.
Additionally, the Workload Analyzer manages the data collection by communicating with a control center (known as the EMC Control Center or ECC). The ECC runs on the host, and the Workload Analyzer commands the ECC to collect data while specifying the kinds of data to be collected at any given time. Thus the ECC agent on the host, for example a Unix machine connected to the Symmetrix, manages collection and storage of data for analysis by the Workload analyzer. The data is retrieved for the Workload Analyzer, such as manually by loading a diskette or by using FTP (File Transfer Protocol), i.e. pseudo manual approaches. Files containing the data are transferred to storage accessible to the Workload Analyzer so that the data can be retrieved for generation of graphs and displays for purposes of system performance analysis.
Although historical data can be stored using these later workload analyzers, the data can not be flexibly collected in that the collection intervals are fixed (e.g. collections every 15 minutes or not at all), and can not be controlled except in the binary sense of on or off. Further, the data can be manipulated in only a limited fashion and only limited data is collected in that there is no configuration data available and the data typically contains only fixed, single interval data. Disadvantageously, like the early workload analyzers (e.g. SymTOP), parameter access and system management is possible only on a one-to-one basis, in that parameters can be viewed only for a single drive or system at a time. A user has to control differentiation between different machines providing data. That is, parametric information can only be obtained for a single storage system through the host resident agent and stored in a respective file and the user would have to manually collect and correlate the data from different machines.
Furthermore, with most known workload analyzers there is no useful organization of the data files in any way. The organization typically is that the data is put in a directory. The user has to maintain the directory in order to know where the data is located. Further, disadvantageously, there is no data management functionality to enable a user to perform useful cross-correlation of data being analyzed among a plurality of systems. The utility of previous workload analyzers was limited.